Christmas Letter 2017

The Downing’s 2017 Christmas Letter!

I didn’t expect the twists of 2017, and I’m going to guess you didn’t either! So, hold onto the ride as we capture and explore the Downing’s adventures of 2017. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

“You don’t have to specialize - do everything that you love and then, at some time, the future will come together for you in some form.” - Francis Ford Coppola (1939 - )

The closing thought of the 2016 Downing Christmas letter speculated on a year of change for 2017, and boy was I right! Whew! Hold on for the ride, because the 2017 Downing Christmas letter begins now!


We’ll start with Cheryl’s wrist, which was seriously hurt when the stand mixer caught her wedding ring on December 1, 2016. The initial prognosis was that it was a serious sprain, and that physical therapy would cure what ails her… NOT! After a couple months of pain and suffering, they finally sent her to the best surgeon around. This doctor quickly discovered that the ligament along her outer wrist/forearm was not only stretched, but torn as well! Well, that explains the ongoing agony she endured, and that physical therapy would have NEVER helped her recover.

In March, she went under the knife and had a pin stuck completely through one bone and partially into another. Yes, this was by design, and not an accident. The six weeks sporting around a pin brought a temporary infection, and even a time when the short hook on the pin slipped under her skin instead of hanging out in its protected little bundle. When it came time to have the pin removed, the doctor said to Cheryl, “you’ll feel a little tug, but it won’t hurt.” The doctor stole a quick glance at me and shook his head, brow furrowed in all seriousness, which said “I just lied to your wife and this is going to seriously suck, so hold on!”

When the pliers came out, the doctor made sure I had a good grip with Cheryl’s hand before yanking the pin out in one quick pull. Cheryl’s pain level skyrocketed, but she brought me along for the ride as her long, freshly painted fingernails dug into my hand with a grip that gouged my flesh, and I couldn’t pull away! Her exclamations included “Oh Freak!” and “Fudge, fudge, fudge!” and the eternal classic, “Owwww!!!” The doctor disregarded her pain and simply worked to bandage her backup and send her to get a new brace down the hall. Now, you might be thinking “Cheryl certainly stopped painting houses after all the pain!” Well, you don’t know my wife! She kept painting, moving and climbing ladders, hauling equipment, and conquering the world of residential painters in Salem and surrounding areas. That is, until she made a change later in the year. Stay tuned! I’ll get to that in just a moment.


My work gave me an opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. and Nashville, TN this year. My D.C. trip included tours of Ford Theater, the International Spy Museum, National Art and Portrait Museum, and a guided tour of the Nation’s Capital. The Capital tour was courtesy of Senator Merkley’s staff who took a liking to me, and tucked me into a tour group at the last minute.

The Art and Portrait museum was interesting once I got past the first floor, which was pretty lame. As Sophia would say “I do-not-like-this... no-tank-too” (each word very clearly enunciated, except for No Thank You). In my opinion, if it looks like a toddler painted something, it’s not art. Of course, naked people are everywhere! No, not real people… paintings, sculptures, figurines… so many naked people! I wouldn’t want to be a nude model of such artists, as they apparently only work with men when it’s really cold.

The other trip for work sent me to Nashville, Tennessee. A coworker mentioned she was going on a guided “ghost tour” walking around the old buildings in downtown, and I couldn’t resist! The tour was informative and filled with local folklore, but the ghosts didn’t appear until the next day. I stayed in one of the oldest sections of the Gaylord Opryland hotel, and during the conference I took a break around 3pm to do some work in my room. Minutes after my arrival, however, the smoke alarm in the room went crazy! I quickly gathered my important belongings and stepped into the vacant hallway. The fact that no one else was around didn’t alarm me, but the only alarm going off was exclusively in my room! I used the phone at the end of the hallway, beside the stairway, to call the hotel. I asked if we were to evacuate the building, but the lady immediately asked “why in the world would you do that?”

I explained the alarm in my room, and the fact that other rooms were completely silent of their alarms. She looked into the networked emergency systems and determined that the alarm in my room was actually NOT going off. I extended the phone down the hall for a moment, making sure she could hear the pulsing, screeching alarm from my room. She said she’d send up the maintenance engineers to investigate, and to wait in the hall.

I asked her if this had anything to do with local ghosts, because my television mysteriously turned itself on at 11:00pm my first night in the room. Cheryl can confirm this claim because we were chatting on the phone when it came on. She hesitated briefly before covering her mouth against her phone to explain that there’s a local ghost people see called the Black Lady, dating back to the 1830’s. The hotel lady asked me to call her back to tell her if any more ghosts appear in my room. When the engineers arrived, the alarm had stopped, and there was nothing wrong with the alarm at all! They asked if I’d been smoking in the room, which I denied, of course. So, in turn, I asked them if it was the ghost called the Black Lady, which they just stared at me blankly in response. Whatever! It was a ghost, whether they admit it or not.

In August, 2016 I embarked on a mission to acquire my M.B.A. at Corban University in Salem. The intense journey finally concluded on December 16, 2017, which was not easy, but definitely worth it! I would like to pat myself on the back for a moment, and mention that I finished the program with the highest GPA I’ve ever earned, nearing very, very close to a 4.0! This was due, in a very real sense, to the patient support of Cheryl and Sophia. They were “homework widows” as I tucked myself into my office after a full day of work, and even occasionally on weekends.

The online classes changed every five weeks in a rush toward completion, and yet through it all life did not completely come to a stand still. To illustrate this, my 1-week spring break was consumed by a kitchen remodel! We removed all the counter tops, moved a section of the cabinetry almost two feet, installed another cabinet, repainted all the cabinets, and even reconstructed a portion of the hardwood floor! We even removed the counters in the downstairs guest bathroom and the upstairs hall bathroom. We had a local company install the new granite counter tops and backslash in each location, but we did all the work ourselves otherwise. You can see that the list of work wasn’t a small undertaking, and my 1-week spring break project ultimately took almost a month. This was mostly because the counter top contractors delayed their part of the project, but it looks amazing!!!

In the final stretch of summer, we decided to paint the exterior of our house, turning it from the classic, neighbor friendly “baby poop” yellow/orange/tan color to a dark gray with very light gray trim. I think the previous color is neighbor friendly because it made everyone else’s house look great comparatively! Now the neighbors’ just look okay, whereas ours really looks fashionable!

My birthday present (in June) brought me a fantastic Traeger grill, 12 lbs of pork (YES! 12 LBS!), and three large racks of baby back ribs. Cheryl felt guilty for the extra effort I suffered through to take care of her, the house, and Sophia while still working full time and doing my M.B.A. school work. I immediately sold my other grill and began smoking any type of meat I could get my hands on! Where Cheryl used to fear the dry, charcoaled meat from my past grilling techniques, the Traeger has delivered nothing but perfection for our now-refined tastebuds!

As I entered the very last M.B.A. class., I had a mutual departure from my employment, leaving me to help transition Cheryl’s company, Time to Paint LLC, to the new owner. This included such things as bidding and painting houses, educating the new owner on the intricate details of business ownership, administration, and operations. Where did Cheryl go, you ask? Well, she studied hard and got her Oregon Insurance Agent license! She’s now an Aflac agent, ready to help the world live in financial peace through supplemental insurances in the case of accidents, hospital stays, disability, and even (God forbid) cancer.

Where is Sophia in all this? Well, she started kindergarten this year! She “graduated” preschool/daycare wearing a pink cap and gown, which was the absolute cutest thing EVER! She’s taking swimming lessons at the local fitness club, and violin lessons after school, but they had to get her the smallest, legitimate violin made because she’s a petite little girl still. She’s reading and comprehending at an accelerated pace, and we love watching her grow into a pretty awesome little girl who loves excessive amounts of pink while launching Hot Wheel cars and Nerf bullets around the house. A nice blend, don’t you think!?

At the last few weeks of 2017, I not only finished my M.B.A. program, but I also accepted a new job that will take me into a global construction corporation that has its home base where my Scandinavian heritage originates! I’ll be working in both Oregon and Washington, which will make a very interesting 2018.

Looking forward

I’m reluctant to speculate on the changes of 2018, but here it is: I think we’re going to have a fantastic year of growth and success like never before! I dare not say my hair will grow back into a gorgeous plum of wavy awesomeness, so I’ll simply say the baldness works and I’m happy to keep it. The coming year is going to be fun, interesting, adventurous, healthy, and exciting! I know we’re looking forward to it, and we hope you are too!

Merry Christmas with all our love,

The Downing Family